The Western Cape government – through its Cape Town Air Access (CTAA) team – has secured an agreement with TAP Air Portugal for a direct flight to Cape Town, starting from November.

Further details on the route will be revealed soon.

This was announced today (February 17) by Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, during his State of the Province Address in the historic town of Genadendal.

 “We will work to grow international and domestic tourism at a time when it is severely constrained in order to save the thousands of jobs this sector creates. We need to prepare for what will be another difficult year for the tourism sector in our province,” he said.

Winde said the first critical step toward that would be to ensure that the air network recovered after a number of routes were suspended or cancelled due to travel restrictions and a low demand for travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic

“Without connectivity, long-haul travel to our province will be even more difficult to promote,” said Winde, highlighting that the CTAA team – which is located in the offices of trade and investment agency, Wesgro – continued to engage with the global aviation industry, and that there were “some promising signs emerging”.

“Aside from TAP, we have been able to secure a direct route from Cape Town to Atlanta on Delta Air Lines for later this year and we welcome Airlink’s added connection between Cape Town and Harare, as well as Cape Town to Walvis Bay, commencing next month.”

More funding for CTAA

Meanwhile, to further advance Cape Town’s air connectivity growth, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, James Vos, announced that his office had renewed funding for the CTAA initiative.

“Connecting Cape Town to more cities and countries creates more jobs through tourism. Together with our strategic business partners, we are implementing recovery plans for this crucial sector to ensure we get the aviation sector back on its feet,” he said.